


Desert Beauty

by orphan_account



Series: Please be Mindful [1]
Category: Final Fantasy XII, Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Friends to Lovers, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-24
Updated: 2014-06-22
Packaged: 2018-01-26 09:50:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1683989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Noctis has been dreaming of a desert thief, who dreams of him just as equally.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. First and Second Dreams

**Author's Note:**

> oops i ship noctis and vaan  
> *triple backflips off a cliff at the near impossibility of them meeting* haha

Noctis was not one much to dwell on dreams he had during his travels, most of which concerned nothing particularly important, just a strange remembrance of his father dancing with an animated alphabet to swing jazz, Cor and Ignis morphing into one large purple number '8', Prompto dressed in nothing more than lacy lingerie, giving him quite possibly the best lap dance he had ever had. After waking up semi-hard, Noctis had been almost unable to look head-on at Prompto for an hour or two before he got it under control.

But there was one dream that he could remember vividly.

There was a boy there.

A boy who looked no older than him, stood a slight shorter too. He wore a metal plated vest slipping off his shoulder, a pendant underneath, blue and black pants with metal engraving, metal greaves, boots, and gauntlets adorning his hands and legs, and nothing else, leaving very little for the imagination concerning his upper body.

His skin was bronzed, his hair fairer than Stella's had been, and his eyes were like silver.

The boy's hand moved like a thief's, and his hips moved like a whore's. His face looked like one that almost always had an easy grin on it.

But after a short minute of staring at each other, Noctis woke up, somewhat wishing that he would be able to see the boy again. Something strange was brewing in his mind and that boy had caused it. A problem could best be solved at its root.

* * *

 

It was a week before he got another chance to see the boy.

He had barely fallen asleep when he saw the same sand-dusted cheeks, lips pursed in confusion, eyes widening in recognition as the boy exclaimed, "It's you!" barely moments after the dream began.

The boy cleared his throat, obviously calming down, and he waved awkwardly. "Uh, hi? I suppose?"

Noctis calmed himself, for the small excitement growing in his stomach would explode if he fed it. "My name is Noctis, Noctis Lucis Caelum," he said, holding a hand out to shake.

The boy took the hand, and -  _oh dear, there it is_ \- a grin slipped onto his lips. "My name is Vaan."

Vaan. Short, simple, sounded nice and nothing could be shortened of it.

"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you," Noctis said.  _A real pleasure. Please let me know you._

Vaan giggled. "A man of manners, are you?"

Noctis ducked his head. "It's what I've been taught." _Was it. . . odd? Unattractive? Strange to the boy?_

"Oh, don't you worry. I merely haven't had much respect in a while. Being treated like the group's whipping boy does that to a man."

"Whipping boy?"

"Well, yes. I don't play a major part in what has been going on lately. I just got forced along and now I pull my shit and some of their shit. Just because I can cook better than the ship's chef or do the laundry as well as a housewife does not mean I will always do it!"

 _Huh. Strange._ "I play a major part, as far as I know, but not too major. I just need to get the crystal back to Lucis. My father probably has a larger role in the way of things."

"Lucis? Where's that?"

"It's the kingdom my father rules, and that I will rule someday."

"Hmmm. . . never heard of it."

 _Never heard of it? Well, it explains his lack of respect or fear, which is a slight bit refreshing from normal reactions to my face in public._  "Well, where are you from?"

"I hail from Rabanastre in the kingdom of Dalmasca."

 _What?_ "I've never heard of either of those."

"Seriously? Well, I suppose it makes sense. You're so pale! You'd probably burn in the Rabanastran desert heat."

"Lucis is normally pretty chilly, you'd most likely freeze with what little you wear," Noctis said, and Vaan laughed.

The fair-haired boy opened his mouth to say something when, out of absolutely nowhere, several. . . things crashed into the dream, and started to attack.

Noctis dragged Vaan behind him - _and indignant cry of, "I can fight too!" came from behind him_  - and the prince summoned his weapons, easily defeating the odd beasts, and in a few mere minutes, stood in their remains, which dissolved and dispersed into black wisps of. . . something. It looked strange and almost familiar, like the sands of the desert the Vaan probably hailed from.

He knelt to examine the dust, noticing the way it moved with a life of it's own, when he heard a roar of another beast, and in the corner of his eye, Vaan sliced the beast's head off with a broadsword.

It came rolling to a stop as his knee, then vanished into the black dust.

"Well." Vaan put his broadsword away. "That's happened."

Then Noctis woke up, Cor bent over him with a worried look on his face.

"Hey, you alright?"

"Yes? Did something happen?"

"You summoned your weapons in your sleep."

 _Ah. Woops._  "Just a strange dream. I battled something in it. That might've been it."

Cor nodded. "Should we wake the others and get going? It's almost dawn."

Noctis nodded and got up and out of his cot, stretching his spine. Sleeping on the ground was not enjoyable at all, least of all for his back. "Let's go."

But when he closed his eyes and washed his face in the nearby stream, the image of Vaan with the sword swinging flashed in his mind and he could see the boy's muscles moving fluidly.

So the boy wasn't lying. He could fight.


	2. Seventh and Fourteenth Dreams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More dreams. Oh boy. here we go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> things happen  
> prepare uranus  
> pluto is coming in fast as hell  
> fucking here wE GO  
> VIVA LA PLUTO FUCK YOU  
> IM A MATURE HUMAN BEING I SWEAR

When they sat in the dreams, they were normally just there, enjoying each other's company. They had already exhausted the possible topics to talk about. They knew each other well, and mostly spent time staring at each other or thinking, maybe not even noticing the time fly by, just like dreams were suppose to be.

"This place. . . is it anywhere in particular, do you suppose?"

Noctis, not expecting any talking that day, seeing as it happened for the last couple of dreams, nor hours, looked over at the boy next to him.

"What do you mean?"

A small inhale. "Well, I mean, isn't this just our minds?"

"Uh-"

"So basically, our imaginations could shape it into something else? Or make something appear?"

"Well, probably-"

"Like this?"

Vaan pulled a glass of water out of the air.

Noctis has no idea what to say, and definitely replies in an articulate fashion. Totally.

"Uh. Wow. I, uh, I would _not_  have thought of that."

"Maybe we should. . . hmmm. . . I'll tell you next time. I think I'm about to wake up."

"Yeah, me too."

"Alright. See ya later, Noct."

And the thief was gone.

"Yeah, you too, Vaan."

* * *

 Noctis was getting distracted.

Not an odd thing for him to do regularly, mind you, but an abnormal thing for him to do in  _battle_.

In the face of  _danger_.

Like facing a  _Behemoth_. _  
_

Terrible idea.

So bad, even his friends call him out on it.

"Noctis, is something wrong? You're really distracted," Gladiolus notes, and the prince does not respond.

His mind is elsewhere, searching for that strange black dust. Perhaps it could lead him to _really_ meet Vaan, lead him to the boy that had him wondering when was the last time he had slept with someone. Perhaps he needed to practice a bit, get into the groove for someone who probably would turn him down now that he thought about it. Not a bad idea though!

"Noct? Hey, buddy!"

Noctis responded to the hand shaking his shoulder, blinks a few times, then shakes his head. "Sorry, I'm just. . . thinking."

"Everyone's thinking. Mostly. I dunno about Prompto." An sound of annoyance could be heard behind them. "But you, my friend, are thinking a _little_. . . well, okay, let's not fake it. You're thinking  _waaaaay_ too much. It's pretty much all you ever do! When's the last time you actually noticed what you were eating? You almost ate your fork yesterday!"

But Noctis was thinking again, and thus did not reply.

"Agh, now you're doing it again! it's creepy! It's not like you! Fuck. I give up. You give it a shot, Ignis."

Adjusting his glasses not unlike a standard glasses-wearing anime character (with a little sparkle and everything), Ignis replied, "And interrupt him? This is strange behavior, but almost every time Noctis goes into thinking mode, something good, if not interesting, comes from it."

"But it normally doesn't last longer than a day," Prompto mentioned. Cor just looked confused.  _Accompany the prince and his companions,_ they said.  _It'll give you a pay raise and a medal of honor,_ they said. 

"Well, maybe it's something _truly_ important," Ignis said back, his voice smooth and calm. 

"What if it's girls?" Prompto asked, and his voice nearly cracks with worry.

"Prompto, in your books, that _is_ something important."

"When a mini winged fucker is coming at you at 30 miles per hour and you aren't paying attention? I don't think so!"

* * *

The dream had started before Noctis had registered Vaan sitting next to him.

This was their fourteenth dream together.

They had gotten to know each other a bit, sparred, and found a way to make the bridge between their minds less of a blank white space with no visible floor, and into a cozy little hideout.

It was a bit like something he had read from a book. These little people lived in 'holes under the ground', but they were homes, not holes, and they had tunnels and branched out into other rooms. Through the use of their imagination, the shelves were filled in the library area with all the books that either of them had ever read and enjoyed. Vaan's side of the library was rather miniscule, so Noctis made up for it. A kitchen and separate storage room were stuffed to the brim with the food they both enjoyed, and the dining table was large enough to fit just the both of them. There was a fireplace and a balcony, and in the middle of it, he found that the whole house was not underground, but under a tree and on a pillar of stone from there on. The bathroom was large, a tab with nice space inside, and a removable shower head set on the wall.

The bedroom was in the middle of the rather circular house, and in the edges of the ceiling, the roots opened up to let streams of light in. There was no bed, rather an indent in the ground and a large circular mattress with countless blankets and pillows strewn on top of it. A couple of desks shaped into the wall, and a curtain surrounded the mattress, with old-style lights set into the walls, never losing their light and never running out of oil.

Noctis found that they both had their separate offices, and his had a familiar look and feel to it, with a photo of his father on the desk, and some things once lost to childhood on some shelves against the wall. The window showed a stream, and something told him it was fake, yet real, in an imaginary way. It made sense enough. A door in the back of the office, the only way he could get in, opened to a bridge, something he had not expected, but he found it led back to his own mind, rather than the dream mind they shared. He shaped up his own mindscape as well. A much emptier and less decorated version of the family mansion took the place of the drab room he had once had for a mind.

Vaan's office he had not seen. It was Vaan's actual mind. Privacy was something that should be kept between the two, so he hadn't gone in.

But, as he lay reading a book about Ivalice on the bed next to Vaan (who was reading Silence of the Lambs, oddly enough), he looked over as the younger(?) boy leaned on his arm, and couldn't help but feel so. . . so relaxed. His mind had been strained thinking about the black dust, wondering what it was and where it came from, whether or not it would come back or not. Perhaps he was just worrying too much.

A wind went through the room, small and short, rustling his clothes and bringing the smell of the desert from Vaan to him. Yes, it was just like the wind, that sand. Something that happens, and something you cannot catch. It does not need an explanation. Well, he could deal with it.

But still there was the worry. It was an itch he would scratch another time, another day.

He returned to reading about the wedding of Ashelia B'nargin Dalmasca and Rasler Heios Nabradia.

* * *

 "Hey, Noctis," Gladiolus said, fully expecting Noctis to barely notice it.

"Good morning," came the reply.

Jumping with surprise and a smile on his face, he turned around and hugged his friend, lifting him up and twirling him around a few times or more. 

"Hey! You're back!"

"I never left," Noctis snarked at his brother-in-arms. "Now put me down before you cream your pants. I don't think any of us want to deal with that right now."

"Oh, and the sass is back too!"

"Oh, so it's in one ear and out the other with you today, is it? Put me down!"

The team was happy to see their friend and leader back. Things were back to. . . well, nothing was ever normal. Not in our books. But in theirs, it definitely was.

Cor was still confused though.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i've come to realize that with ffxvii coming out, my ideas on the ffxvii cast will have to be scrapped  
> which means this fic is probably scrapped  
> dag nabbit  
> EDIT: ive decided, ill wait, and see what i can make of these scraps. thank you for reading this, but i might change it. i'll alert you if it does change though!

**Author's Note:**

> well  
> uh  
> so  
> theres gonna be a companion piece  
> ill upload it later  
> but uh  
> yeah  
> uh huh  
> yup  
> this is going to have a story, i swear


End file.
